HJC F70: HJC’s fibreglass sports touring full face helmet.

It’s got a fibreglass shell – chosen to improve strength (see safety section) and slightly reduce weight over their usual polycarbonate shelled helmets. It’s also been given a slightly wider, Pinlock ready visor, with Pinlock included in the box, along with a drop down sun visor.

Plain gloss white HJC F70

Unusually though, HJC has forgone the usual quick release visor and replaced it with an old style visor held on by a screw each side.

But on the plus side, not only is it a great looking helmet, but they’ve also added bluetooth integration in there in the form of HJC’s own Smart Intercom systems (developed by Sena).

So, the HJC F70 looks to be a mixed bag of the old and the new.

If you’re interested in finding out more, we’ve pulled together every possible nugget of information from around the web to help you make your most informed decision when buying your next helmet.

And we’ve added a few recommended alternatives at the bottom of the page too.

Best places to buy an HJC F70?

Please click below to visit the HJC F70 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Safety

If you dig deeply enough into HJC’s bumf – and scour the web enough – it turns out there’s a slightly wider visor on the F70 to help with improved all-round vision and awareness.

And they’ve also used a tried-and-tested double-d ring strap to keep it safely fastened. They’re strong and safe fasteners – a bit more fiddly than micrometric straps if you’re new to helmet buying – but they do the job well and have been around for decades.

Rear view of a gloss black F70

But that’s about it – other than the all-important helmet shell.

It’s a fibreglass shell – or Advanced Fibreglass Composite as HJC call it. If you know anything about helmets, you’ll know fibreglass has been used for aeons to construct strong and reasonably light weight helmets.

HJC makes the shell of the F70 in just two shell sizes (the smaller shell for sizes XS-M and lager shell covering L-XXL) – which is a bit poor these days.

For a mid-priced helmet like the F70, you’d expect three or more shells to be produced as they help optimise fit, looks and safety a little better (read about helmet shell sizes).

And weighing in around 1.55Kg (3.4lbs) it’s a smidge heavier than the average fibreglass helmet.

That shouldn’t cause any weight problems when you’re wearing it. Just that lighter helmets have an edge in managing energy absorption during an impact.

OK, onto safety stats.

Unfortunately, the F70 hasn’t been independently safety tested by anyone we know of. But we can look at how well HJC fibreglass helmets have done in the past to maybe give us a guide.

So far, the independent helmet testing bods at SHARP have tested 8 fibreglass HJC helmets. All of those helmets scored either 3 or 4 stars (out of 5) for safety (average score of 3.25).

Ventilation

For ventilation, the F70 uses what HJC calls ACS or its Advanced Channeling system.

Essentially, that’s similar to systems you’ll find in most other helmet brands – where air is taken in through the helmet shell and directed towards the head using venting channels moulded into the EPS (expanded polystyrene) shock absorbing liner.

F70 in Mago black/fluo yellow showing top vents

In the case of the F70, that involves a couple of crown vents – both covered by sliders – which direct the air through the shell and into a pair of front-back channels inside.

They then route air through to the rear exhaust vents located in that fancy moulding to the rear of the shell.

In the chin bar, there’s actually a pair of separate vents in there too.

The bottom vent is a slider and directs air around the chin and around the side of the jaw. The upper vent is opened/closed using a tipping panel to direct air onto the rear of the visor to help with demisting.

From our research, we’ve found early impressions from owners indicating venting’s very good – despite having very few air channels in the EPS.

A couple of useful links…

On the plus side though, the F70’s delivered with a Pinlock antifog in the box (Europe only), which means you won’t be troubled by a fogging visor.

Also, it has an opening tab on the bottom of the visor at either side which is good, meaning you can easily open the visor with either hand. That’s something most helmet makers don’t bother adding but can come in really handy on the road.

The visor itself works on a (soft) ratchet and HJC quote that it protects from 95% of UV rays.

That’s nice to know – though because visors are made from polycarbonate, it’s an inherent property of all visors on all helmets.

Finally, HJC has widened the visor and sun visor on the F70 for improved peripheral vision. That’s always worth having on a helmet as it’s better for safety and makes for a slightly more involved ride.

Sun Visor

Like the main visor, the sun visor is also slightly wider than normal. And HJC quotes 99% UV protection.

If you’ve been reading any marketing blurb on the F70, you’ll have read that HJC has a patented One Touch sun visor mechanism that makes dropping and raising the sun visor super easy.

Turns out that when you drop the sun visor using the slider on the bottom left edge of the helmet, that One Touch system is just a slight detent on the slider mechanism. So when you pull the slider back to drop the sun visor down, there’s a slight bit of resistance you have to overcome – before the sun visor easily slides down.

Same for returning the sun visor back up – with that slider resistance ensuring the sun visor doesn’t drop down on its own.

Note: the F70 comes with a really large removable breath guard built in. The sun visor drops down to meet the breath guard so, if you remove it, you’re going to have a large area of bright light coming underneath the sun visor. That’s something quite a few riders find a real pain.

Comfort and Sizing

The HJC F70 has a medium oval internal fit. In general that means it should be suitable for most riders’ head shape.

Another Mago F70, this time in black and red

It uses HJC’s Multicool interior which is a nice liner that’s very comfortable and pretty good for wicking sweat away. It’s antibac too and it’s fully removable and washable.

A few owners have commented that the cheek pads in the F70 can be pretty tight when you first get the helmet. This is something you’ll find in many HJC helmets. If you buy an HJC and it squeezes your cheeks lots, don’t be alarmed: they do tend to wear in quickly and get comfortable.

And if they do stay too tight, you can buy thinner replacement cheek pads from HJC to tailor the fit better.

Inside the helmet, there’s a pair of deep speaker pockets (with cutouts to take the wiring) and there’s also a couple of glasses grooves in each side too, so it should be comfortable wearing the helmet with glasses.

Finally, the fastening strap has plenty of padding on it and there’s a popper to secure the end and stop if flapping around when you’re riding.

Looks & Graphics

The HJC F70 is definitely a nicely designed helmet and with its streamlined fighter pilot inspired looks, I reckon it looks pretty cool.

Plain stone grey F70. This one shows up the sun visor slider on the bottom edge

HJC seems to agree as the range of graphics are fairly minimal, letting the form of the helmet speak for itself rather than smothering it in decals.

As well as the usual gloss/matt blacks, pearl white and stone grey solid colours, at the time of writing there’s just the Feron and Mago graphics around – each in a number of different colourways.

There is also to be a nice matt blue and new graphic called the Samos on the way though. When they’re available, you should be able to find those and any others that have been recently launched by clicking through to our recommended retailers below.

Best places to buy an HJC F70 helmet?

Please click below to visit the HJC F70 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

HJC F70 Video

Here’s a detailed 11m look around the F70 from Chapmoto.

Other stuff – audio, chin curtain, warranty

The HJC F70 will fit most 3rd party bluetooth headsets. It has been designed to integrate with HJC’s own Smart Intercom system – either the 10B or 20B (developed in conjunction with Sena).

In fact, on paper it looks to be one of the best integrations yet with internal pockets for speakers, microphone and hollowed out sections for the wiring to snap into place.

The F70 comes with both a chin curtain and breath guard. That rubber breath guard is one of the biggest we’ve seen and should really help with visor demisting. It’s easily removable too.

Finally, the F70 comes with a decent 3 year guarantee (or 5 years from date of manufacture – whichever’s soonest).

Overall/Summary

It’s got most of the features you’re probably looking for in a touring helmet – namely nice wide visor with Pinlock, a drop down sun visor and good bluetooth headset integration.

There’s a question mark over whether it’ll provide class-leading impact protection simply because it’s not been independently tested yet – though it is ECE and DOT.

But with its tried and tested venting system and comfort liner, and its attractive price point (like most HJCs) we’d expect the F70 to be a trustworthy helmet that’ll be comfortable and a great value buy.

Good Alternatives to the HJC F70?

There’s a stack of full face helmets out there that have been reviewed, highly rated and safety tested. Here’s a small selection we reckon you should look at – though you might also want to check out our top 10 full face helmets list too.

Or how about Scorpion Exo’s top flight sports touring helmet, the 1400 Air. It might be their top helmet but it’s only a smidge more expensive than the F70 and it’s got a sun visor, EQRS and it’s SHARP 4 star rated.

Frost black Arai QV-Pro

If you’ve got a bit more bunce and want a top brand, Arai’s QV Pro is a SHARP 5 star sports touring helmet with Pinlock that’s ideal for slightly longer oval head shapes. It’s more money than the F70 though.

Skwal 2 Flynn

For slightly less than the HJC, you can have the SHARP 4 star rated Shark Skwal 2. Pinlock included, sun visor, 5 year warranty – and it’s got fancy built-in LEDs if that sort of thing floats your boat.

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Best places to buy an HJC F70?

Please click below to visit the HJC F70 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).